Chapter 3

Saint Petersburg, Russia 

Inside a big spacious room, three men were standing side by side with their heads bowed down. A man in his late twenties was sitting behind a desk holding a cigar in his hand. A girl with bare minimum clothes was massaging his shoulder while giggling seductively. The scene was pretty much common to what an author could describe as an already degraded man with no moral values. There were plenty of papers kept on the table but the man's eyes were fixed on a specific one.

"Did you check the house thoroughly?" 

"Yes, Boss. But there was no one. Even those dead bodies went missing. Yuri and his wife's bodies were no longer there when we visited the place again." A man bowing his head narrated the incident that occurred once they headed again in the same building to grab the girl. 

"Max, I think you are no longer needed." The man seating on the large black leather chair growled while making a ring of smoke with his favorite cigar. 

Max's eyes immediately snapped up towards his master to understand his intentions. He was one of the ruthless mafia bosses they had ever come across. 

"Boss, we did our best. The bodies weren't there." Max tried to defend his work when his Boss barked on his face.

"How come those bodies get disappeared? Did the police come? If the police were informed that means she was there in the house and left before you basterds could catch her." His nostrils flared with anger. He knew there wouldn't come any sort of allegations against him but what he wanted was her, alive and perfect in one piece. 

"We don't know boss but as per your order, we went to grab the girl. She wasn't there." Max looked at him another partner who also nodded to support his wordings. 

"If you have already failed to track her, how would she come under my clutch? Above all where could she go? She has practically no one in this world." 

The man annotated as Boss laughed like a maniac while drawing another puff from his cigar. He laughed more just by imagining the little girl roaming from one place to another to seek shelter and help. She was neither an adult nor a well-equipped one to survive here. Only he could provide for her but on some conditions.

A small photograph was kept in front of him among those files pf files, where a girl's face was prominently visible. Rubbing his finger on the lower lips on the photo he poked his cheek with his tongue. 

"Find her by any means. She should be my sex slave and nothing else. After all, that is what I had promised to her father earlier." His intentions and words made everyone flinch at their positions but nobody spoke a single word to oppose him. They were afraid to die just at that moment.

Before the team could move out he let out another statement to shake their mental state violently.

"If she arrives here by herself before you guys can find her out, I promise I would spare your life. But if you fail to get her in front of me, be ready to not see tomorrow's sun."

All those three men who were hastily going out to search for a mere girl made up their mind with their Boss's order. They knew the situation had gone beyond anything. Their Boss won't sit idle until he was getting back the mere girl in his mansion under his mercy. At that moment they were feeling sick inside knowing that she was barely fourteen and couldn't be sold anywhere at that age. 

 

"Max, what should we do now?" The man named Andre asked who was loading his gun while looking at the other side of the car. 

"Andre, do you think Godfather has something to do with those bodies? We had practically wiped off Yuri and his family and he wasn't informed about that."

"That old hag had nothing to do with Yuri. Even if he had visited the mess, he would rather spit instead of picking up their bodies. Chances are high that police had arrived to take them away." Andre explained while getting inside the car followed by Max who was still searching for some suitable reason to provide in his next meeting. Because if they fail to get a small girl back in their Boss's mansion, their lives would be at stake and obsession could be lethal if not taken care of. 

Andre was silent until Max brought out another piece of information for them.

"Remember that old hag is getting a strong hand soon."

"Fuck it. Our boss would become the next Bratva. Don't worry." Andre brushed off Max's statement while going towards the building where bloodshed happened a few hours back. They reached the area and found it dead silent even more than their previous visit. 

Max signaled his men to take a position in case new targets or any new members arrived who were already on good terms with Yuri just to look at the situation. The man was no doubt the most decorated Assassin in Russian Mafia. Only if he had agreed with their Boss's words, things wouldn't turn into such a mess.

They entered the room. Those patches of blood were present but no bodies were found inside. It was partially visible that those bodies were dragged a little and later taken away. The messed-up house looked more horrible and haunted. All they could sense was a terrifying eerie silence. 

"I don't think we would be getting back the bodies. Police had already given funeral for sure." Andre let out a small laugh crossing his hand and showing a mocking gesture of prayer. 

"Let wait for the girl to come." Max walked upstairs instructing his men to search for the girl, in case she was hiding in one of those rooms.

                                      

                                        *********

Iris was walking towards the main road when the sunset at the horizon caught her eyes and she found herself getting surrounded in dark. As usual, she had never been outside like that before without her father. She was always accompanied by her father or mother. Her throat was parched due to her excessive shouting. Her eyes became heavy due to such long hours of crying but her feet didn't give up until she managed to get a mode of public transport. After searching in his father's safe and wardrobe, she found a small portion of money too. 

Even though she had no one to reach or no shoulder to cry on, she decided to write her own destiny. She knew she had never seen the man who was responsible for her miseries let alone know him. But one thing for sure, she would find him. She would bring him out even if he was hiding in the Earth's core. And finding the culprits were never tough because they were already black-listed in the papers of government and legal areas. 

She got onto the bus wearing the same school uniform drenched in blood. The only thing she had added was his father's jacket to hide her blood-stained white t-shirt. Though her skirt held brown patches making it look more unhygienic and disgusting, she preferred not to bother while taking the last seat on the bus. The nearest address she found to reach was almost in the other area which was precisely an hour or more journey from her house. Her day's tiredness started pooling over into her eyes but she slapped her cheeks like a madwoman to keep herself awake. Her empty stomach growled but her ignorance killed that hunger. She couldn't sleep until she was killing the man she had started hating a few hours back. The one who hadn't seen her or vice versa as per her thoughts.

People were already giving her a disgusting and sympathetic look after noticing her attire and backpack. Her appearance looked like a refugee who had just crossed the border of the enemy's land. The sky outside the bus started getting dark with grey clouds covering almost everything. Just like her shattered heart and broken dreams the visibility of those stars in the night sky got diminished due to the appearance of heavy grey clouds. The small growling of thunder made her situation worst notifying her about another struggle. She had no rain cover or anything. Even though she was absolutely fine inside the bus, the moment she would get down, the anticipated rain would not show her an ounce of mercy.

Her chain of thoughts broke when she realized a movement beside her. A middle-aged woman came towards the last seat where she was seated. Settling herself there she looked at her left where a young girl in school uniform was seated clutching her backpack so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

 

"My child, are you suffering?" 

Iris snapped her head at the woman who was looking at her with sympathy and concern-filled eyes. She was wearing a dress of nun, which indicated her job and present personality. The woman was a nun and she read her facial expressions quite easily. After all, she wasn't a grown-up lady to hide her emotions with maturity.

"No....." Iris replied firmly gulping down a huge amount of saliva. That nun noticed something in the little girl's eyes that could not be hidden easily. There was a flash of revenge, regret, pain, and above all a fear of suffering and loneliness. As per her age, she shouldn't harvest so many negative emotions but the way her eyes were changing, the nun could feel her walking towards her destruction. She had spent years grooming school girls. Just sparing a single look she could read someone's eyes and there that little girl was all clear like a crystal. Her eyes spoke more than her words and gestures.

"The fear of suffering is more than the actual suffering my child. Remember Christ is always there to protect you. Never feel alone in this world." The nun told her while caressing her cheeks which seemed tear-stained. She knew if the young soul keep on going towards the unknown path of destruction that was flashing in her eyes, she might lose a lot. Even though she wasn't aware of her past, she could sense the thirst for taking revenge oozing out from her.

"Your Christ is not there for me. He wasn't and won't be. I don't believe in your god. He can't do anything." Iris almost shouted on the nun's face who was taken aback at first hearing such hurtful words from a young girl's mouth. But something told her not to argue with the broken soul who was utterly confused at that moment. 

"There is no yours or mine in the matter of God. He is everywhere. If he isn't, he would always make sure to put someone for you, my child." The nun patted her head in order to give her some warmth but she was not in a mood for such lectures. Her inside was burning and she chose to end the conversation at that moment. 

"I don't believe in God," Iris spoke with her gritted teeth. 

"Someday you would." The nun gave her a warm smile and pinched her nose a little before walking towards the gate to walk down in the next stoppage. 

She looked at her retreating figure and only let out a big sigh. No one noticed the knife she was clutching tightly in her hand keeping that inside her bag. 

"Start counting your minutes...The great Bratva..."